When we give ourselves time for restoration and comfort, when we do act or make decisions, it will be with more calm, energy, courage, perspective, and wisdom.
Blogs: Diary 1927 and Spiritual Snacks |
|
There are days for striving, and days for resting; days for wrestling with difficult questions and days for pausing in gratitude and calm, comfort and renewal. Today, give yourself a break from all that concerns you. Feel Love cherishing you. Accept love, without question or resistance. Let go of need to solve anything or take any particular action.
When we give ourselves time for restoration and comfort, when we do act or make decisions, it will be with more calm, energy, courage, perspective, and wisdom.
0 Comments
Today, choose kindness. Today, when faced with choices related to yourself, ask, "What choice shows the most kindness to my present and future self? When faced with choices related to others, ask "What choice shows the most kindness to this person's present and future self?"
The inclusion of "future self" helps us counter the misunderstanding that kindness is the same as ease or low standards. True kindness balances gentleness and tenderness with an understanding of what is healthy for us now and what will serve our health and happiness in the future. To people of power, Jesus said, "You have no authority over me, except it be give to you from above."
Today, know that your authority, your sense of presence and confidence, your courage, your deep-settled peace, comes from Love itself. Today, know that no human has power to take away your Love-bestowed rights and freedoms. Love is your boss. Love is your government. Love is your law. Feel and know your strength and freedom. Today, accept that you are Love's beloved. Nothing can change or shake that identity, your first and most important identity. Live in the peace of that identity. Accept the power and grace and authority that comes with that identity. Feel the forgiveness and experience and the sense of perspective that comes with that identity. Don't make yourself small. Let go of any false humility which might undermine your courage or sense of possibility, your freedom or your joy.
From Wayne Muller's book Legacy of the Heart:
"We relentlessly judge ourselves for who we should be, and rarely accept ourselves just as we are. Whatever we are feeling in this moment is judged by some mythical ideal of what we "should" be feeling, what we should be doing, and who we should be. If we hurt, we think we should have been healed by now; if we feel frightened, we think we should be stronger; if we feel sad, we think we should be happier. Every moment every breath of our lives is subtly judged as unacceptable. Measured by the standards of who we should have been by now, we constantly fall short. But what if the feelings that arise in us every day - even the sad, hurt, uncomfortable sensations of our heart and bodies - have their own value and carry something to teach us? If we are not "supposed" to feel sad, and we touch that sadness with anger or impatience, then we are unable to listen to what our sadness may be teaching us. Refusing to allow our sadness to be true, we see our sadness as a mistake, something broken, something to gotten rid of. But what if the sadness is not evidence against us, not a condemnation of how slowly we are healing but simply a moment of sadness, an instant of sorrow that has arisen in our body? What if that sorrow carries the seed of something forgotten, something wanting our attention? Who will listen? How can we allow ourselves to be human, to feel at times tender and broken, and not touch it with judgment and violence? Can we hold our pain and touch it instead with mercy and care?" Today, feel Love's stability. Know that Love holds your identity stable. Love provides a safe and stable container for your emotions. Love's commitment to you is unfaltering and unalterable. This stable, powerful Love promotes integrity, wisdom, and courage in our thinking, action, and lives.
Today, no matter what the challenges presented to you, return again and again to feeling Love's love for you. That is the real work. The world will argue that your job is to make a decision, complete a task, confront, improve, change, plan, say something, take action. Do do do. But our truest work is to feel the presence of Love with us, a companion, friend, comfort, advocate, guide, the source of our inspiration, and the power behind any effective action.
Today, do not see work as a burden. Recognize your work as the way Life and Love shine through you and into the world. Know that Love wants your work to be a joy. Your work is a gift to you and a gift for others.
Today, know that Love is your parent and creator. Therefore, you are not doomed, through DNA, training, or belief, to carrying the suffering of your parents. The good they gave you is Love shining in your life. The difficulties they caused are not burdens you must carry forever. Claim Love as your source and your identity.
Today, spend less time worrying about other people and more time entrusting them to Love - who is speaking to their minds and hearts in exactly the way they can hear and understand - and on Love's own schedule. Spend less time worrying about yourself and trying to solve problems and more time feeling yourself cherished.
From the Bible: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths." |
AuthorTarn Wilson is the author of the memoir The Slow Farm and numerous essays. You may read more of her work at tarnwilson.com. Archives
September 2020
Categories |